Let's get the ball rolling. Who are your favorite authors?

[FloridaJudy]

I have far too many to list, so I'll just begin with my current ten favorites, all still living.

China Mieville
Neil Gaiman
Neal Stephenson
Ursula LeGuin
Lois McMaster Bujold
Vernor Vinge
Connie Willis
Joe Haldeman
Charles Stross
Richard K. Morgan

I've probably left at least fifty out, but it's a start.

[Little Star]

2. Sorry. I was in the wrong group.

[FloridaJudy]

4. I love Tepper!

Her stuff isn't to every taste, and it tends to be uneven, but when she hits her stride, she's phenomenal. I particularly liked the "Arbai" trilogy: "Grass", "Raising the Stones" and "Side Show". "The Family Tree" is also one of my favorites.

She's the grand-master of the unexpected plot twist. I remember getting one third of the way into "Grass" when she suddenly turned all my preconceptions on end. The aliens weren't what I thought. The "aristocrats" weren't what I thought. And the Hunt certainly wasn't what I thought!

But what she pulled in "The Family Tree" was a magic trick of monumental proportions. When the two time-lines meet it's an OMG! moment. All the clues were there from the very beginning, but I did not see that one coming. Anyone who gives it away is DTM.

[FloridaJudy]

6. And "The Companions"

I want one of those dogs. Bad.

[uppityperson]

22. Indeed. Rather than "just" being feminist, or rather women are downtrodden,

The Fresco was very good overall. Have you read The Margarets? I had to read it a couple times to figure out who all was doing what all where. Ms.Tepper was Exec Director of Rocky Mt Planned Parenthood for a while, which makes a lot of what she writes make sense, meaning why she wrote it.

She is one of the few authors I would like to meet.

[uppityperson]

11. Family Tree had SO many puns in it

reading it and thinking of pig latin, regular latin, young toddler learning to talk, and other languages, made me laugh a lot. Too funny.

[FloridaJudy]

14. It also has one of my favorite sig lines:

"Ignorance may be bliss, but it's damned poor life insurance".



(Still laughing when I think of The Fronch)

[uppityperson]

15. Did you get the armikafatidi?

that one took me the longest, figuring out what those frinch (fronch?) was, or why they were named that

[FloridaJudy]

18. Hard to figure them out

Since they seemed to communicate entirely in grumbles, although many of the future folk appeared to be able to understand them. I have my theories as to the origins of their name - starting with "American's are.."

Tepper has a love of outrageous puns. One of the provinces in "Side Show" is called Enarae: I was many chapters into the book before I sounded it out and went "Oh. Right. Makes perfect sense".

[uppityperson]

19. To not spoil it for others, sent you a message.

grummel grummel grummel

[uppityperson]

20. enarae

I never got that. Too funny.

[OxQQme]

57. Tepper's latest is 'Fish Tails'

Got it last week. I'm at page 392 of the 705 pages.
What a delight she is.
Have read most of her.
Some twice.

<In Fish Tails, two of Tepper's beloved characters—Abasio the Dyer and his royal wife, Xulai—are traveling through the scattered villages of the sparsely populated land of Tingawa. Accompanied by their young children, they seek to warn everyone of the dire ecological changes that will alter their lives and those of their children for generations to come.

The waters are rising, and will eventually inundate their world. Many of those born in the coming century will resemble their son and daughter—sea children who can live without land. Abasio and Xulai hope to find others interested in adopting their sea-dwelling lifestyle. Because before too long, there will be no other choice. A grand summation of a long and illustrious career, Fish Tails displays the extraordinary powers of invention of one of the great voices in contemporary science fiction. Sweeping in scope and vision, full of insights for our own time, it is a masterpiece of imagination, the capstone to a marvelous oeuvre.>

[Dr. Strange]

7. I am just finishing up "The Scar."

My current favorites:

Philip K. Dick
Robert Charles Wilson
Robert J. Sawyer
Joe Haldeman
Dan Simmons
F. Paul Wilson

[FloridaJudy]

8. Loved "The Scar"

Mieville comes up with the most intriguing aliens. "Perdido Street Station" is another in the series that I really enjoyed. Actually, I wish I'd read it first, since it explains a lot that happens in "The Scar" that baffled me the first time I read it.

I'm kind of ambivalent about Simmons. While I liked the Hyperion series, he's recently come out as a teabagger, and his latest is a real stinkeroo according to the reviews: some on Amazon compare it to the most unhinged Glenn Beck ravings. Sad, from an author whose earlier works I admired.

[uppityperson]

12. I liked some of F Paul Wilson but am tired of the dragging on

of the ending of the series of RJack. I liked him as a character, but tire of the most recent books. Yes, will read the last one when it comes out, need to finish it, but the next to last "fatal error" was rather Planet of the Apes (they all die. life goes on) eventually without a lot of fun stuff in there. Guess I liked the fun stuff rather than the evil/not so evil stuff.

[krispos42]

9. I have embarrassingly few Sci-Fi authors

And I re-read their stuff an embarrassing large number of times.

In no particular order:

Larry Niven
David Drake
Jerry Pournelle
Harry Turtledove
Robert Forstchen


Um, shit.

I've read and enjoyed Robert Heinlein (usually his teen stuff from the 50's), Arthur C. Clarke, Leo Frankowski, and probably a few others.

[petronius]

10. Iain M. Banks, Greg Egan, Ian McDonald, Nancy Kress...

Plus many more, of course

[lazarus]

13. Old school: Heinlein

Yes, he's a bit libertarian in places, but a fantastic author who established many of the tropes in the field.

Currently, I love Vernor Vinge. The Zones of Thought concept was a nice way to avoid the Singularity in future projections.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

48. George Bernard Shaw said of HG Wells

That he was a born storyteller who sold his birthright for a pot of message. (See the King James Version of Genesis 25:29-34 if you do not understand Shaw's pun.)

The same can be said of Heinlein. Wells was a Fabian Socialist, while Heinlein was a libertarian. For me, the archtypical Heinlein novel is Glory Road, the first two thirds of which is a rollicking adventure story, told with wit and humor. In the last third, Heinlein gets on his soapbox to proclaim his political message, and is almost unreadable. I should also mention the vast amount of gratuitous sex, which reads like the fantasies of an overactive 14-year-old boy.

Heinlein's first hit was Starship Troopers. I read this in an English class I took while I was in college, after having been in the army, including a tour in Vietnam. The professor knew that I was a combat veteran, and asked me what I thought of the novel from that viewpoint. I replied that Heinlein obviously knew the military, but had no experience of combat, since no one who had been in combat could have written that novel. I looked him up, and discovered that I was right: Heinlein had graduated from the US Naval Academy at Annapolis in the late 1920s, but had been invalided out of the navy for tuberculosis in the 1930s. (During WWII, he held an engineering post at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. Interestingly, two of his coworkers were Isaac Asimov and A E Van Vogt.) Philosophically, Starship Troopers is a disaster. No, population pressures are not the cause of all wars. No, war is not morally good in and of itself. Johnny Rico is the sort of character that gives cardboard characters a bad name.

Don't even get me started on Time Enough For Love, in which Heinlein makes it clear that he agrees with Harlan Ellison that "love ain't nothing but sex misspelled". He spends several hundred pages on love as eros; and exactly two paragraphs on love as agape, a view which he dismisses. The image of Lazarus Long's mother giving him a lock of her pubic hair as a keepsake still bothers me, over forty years since I read the book. I have described Time Enough For Love as being by Hugh Hefner out of Ayn Rand.

[eppur_se_muova]

58. There are some authors I read in my earlier days that I can't stand to re-read now ...

Heinlein's worst stuff is definitely at the top of the list. Only Edgar Rice Burroughs' stuff loses respect with advancing maturity faster.

Heinlein was a deviously clever guy, but seemed not to realize that he often came across more as amoral (or dysmoral, if that's a word) than open-minded.

Have to admit some his juvie stuff is still enjoyable, though, in a running-away-to-live-with-the-Indians sort of way. Grand, mostly meaningless adventures by precocious teens/young adults.

If were you put off by TEFL, stay away from Number of the Beast. It's strictly the culmination of his "I can be more shockingly open-minded than you can handle" schtick.

One of his collections -- I *think* it was Expanded Universe -- contained a lot of autobiographical commentary by Heinlein, including a story about his treatment for TB, and his description of how he gamed the Navy regs to retire at the best rank and pension with a minimum of service. He seemed to be proud of that.

[dimbear]

16. R A Lafferty, Jack Vance, Clark Ashton Smith, Keith Laumer..........

Lately I'm on a golden age kick. Mostly Euro authors like Salgari and others of the Verne school. Amazing how many ideas came from there before WWI blew them up.........

[iris27]

17. Most of mine have been mentioned so far, but I just wanted to add Octavia Butler. n/t

[FloridaJudy]

21. The only reason she didn't make my original cut

Was that she died a few years ago. Sad: she was relatively young, and never managed to finish the "Parable" series.

[Odin2005]

42. OMG, I didn't know she died, what happened to her?

[Codeine]

28. Thinking about Ms. Butler always depresses me.

Life was unkind to her in many ways, and then it was cut short. Sigh.

[JitterbugPerfume]

24. Kim Stanley Robinson

Phillp K Dick

George Orwell

Adolus Huxley

Margaret Atwood

Douglas Adams

there is more but I don't feel like going through my book cases looking for them . It's late and I'm old and tired!

[bemildred]

33. Yes!

I find the ones I like best are not really science fiction writers, just writers who wrote some speculative fiction.

But Ms Atwood in particular ought not be neglected.

[DiverDave]

44. And we finally get Adams

I find the Dirk Gently stories just so cool, re-read them alot, Zen driving is a fave.

[GodlessBiker]

25. David Brin, Gregory Benford, Greg Bear, Dan Simmons

[TygrBright]

26. Old and new...

New(er):
Scalzi
Moon
Bunch
Bujold

Old
Cordwainer Smith
Beagle
Bradbury
Pohl
James Schmitz

interestedly,
Bright

[Abin Sur]

27. My favorites, living and deceased. Heinlein at #1. The rest:

Larry Niven
Stephen Baxter
Harry Turtledove
Lois McMaster Bujold
S. M. Stirling
Philip Jose Farmer
Alan Dean Foster
Michael Moorcock
Terry Pratchett
Lawrence Watt-Evans

[GaYellowDawg]

29. John Scalzi!!

Seriously. Go out and buy a copy of Old Man's War and if you don't like it, I'll be very surprised.

In no particular order:

John Scalzi
Julie Czerneda
David Weber
S.M. Stirling
Larry Niven
Richard K. Morgan (although I think he drops off severely outside of the Takeshi Kovacs books)
Allan Steele
Lee Hogan
James Alan Gardner

and I'm probably forgetting someone.

[Rowdyboy]

35. Agreed on Scalzi...and his second book "The Ghost Brigades" is at least as good....n/t

[cthulu2016]

30. It you love Haldeman you at least like Varley

[ShadowLiberal]

31. Ben Bova & Scott Westerfeld write great books

Ben Bova's Grand Tour series (around 20 loosely connected books taking place 50 to 100 years in the future) is a great read. My favorites in the series are Moon War (about a colony of people on the moon having to fight for independence from what's basically a UN with muscle to enforce international law) & The Return (the finale to the grand tour series).

Scott Westerfeld writes some interesting books to. If you want to read a really good novel read his Succession series. It's two books, 'The Risen Empire' and 'The Killing of Worlds' set 5000 years in the future. It's a bit hard to get into at first, from all the advanced technology that makes it a bit confusing at first (such as mini planes the size of a fly the pilots fly remotely). The two books were supposed to be published as one originally, but the publisher wouldn't publish it unless he split it into 2 because it was too long (it's over 800 pages total).

[lastlib]

32. Arthur C. Clarke!

I hope I live to see 'Childhood's End' made into a movie!

I've often thought that Neil Young's 'After The Gold Rush' would be the perfect theme song for it:

"Well, I dreamed I saw the silver spaceship flyin'
In the yellow haze of the sun
There were children cryin' and colors flyin'
All around the Chosen Ones
All in a dream, all in a dream,
The loading had begun,
Flying Mother Nature's silver seed
To a new home in the sun..."

[semillama]

34. David Brin, Neil Stephenson, Dan Simmons...

Also:

Philip K. Dick
Vonnegut
Le Guin
McCaffery
Warren Ellis
Tad Williams

As a kid, I really dug Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke, etc, but haven't read them in years.

[Onceuponalife]

36. My faves off the top of my head

Peter F. Hamilton
Ursula K. Le Guin
Margaret Atwood
Arthur C. Clarke
Isaac Asimov
Joe Haldeman
Stephen Baxter
Robert J. Sawyer
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Harry Turtledove
S. M. Stirling
Harry Harrison
Ray Bradbury
Charles Stross
Dan Simmons
Frank Herbert
Neal Stephenson
Orson Scott Card

I know there are probably others that I can't think of right now!

Oh! Tad Williams! I gues his Otherland series would be considered sci-fi.

[brislington]

37. Jack L Chalker - Midnight at the Well of Souls was a classic

I have read Midnight repeatedly more than any other book. Transformation was his big thing, and he probably went to the Well more than necessary at the end, but he was giving the fans what they wanted. Soul Rider series was also brilliant, who can forget Flux Girls!

He's always seemed very under appreciated to me.

[Moe Shinola]

38. My list, FTM...

Philip K. Dick
Len Deighton
Robert Anton Wilson
Thomas Harris
John Keel
Clifford Simak
Larry Niven
F. Paul Wilson
Charles Stross
Jane Lindskold
Fred Saberhagen
Patricia McKillip
Octavia Butler

I know I'm forgetting somebodys by the dozen.

[Neoma]

39. WHAT?!

No Isaac Asimov?

[eninn]

40. Good topic

Good topic

[Odin2005]

41. Clarke, Asimov, Heinlein, Fred Pohl, Poul Anderson, KSR...

Larry Niven
Ben Bova
David Brin
Octavia Butler
Ursula LeGuin
Anne McCaffrey
Robert Forward
John Brunner


When I was a kid growing up in the 90s I basically consumed all the classic stuff by Asimov, Heinlein, and Clarke, and well as McCaffrey's "Dragonrider" books. I read Brin's epic "Uplift" books when I was in high school and they blew me away.

I'm an optimist and so I tend to avoid the depressing cyberpunk stuff.

[SheilaT]

43. I can't believe no one has yet mentioned

Robert Charles Wilson.

His early stuff, especially. But I'll buy anything he puts out there.

[ChazInAz]

45. I'm a fossil, I guess.

Before I ran out of things to say, I was a writer. The following were people that I knew and were tremendous influences on me as a person and in my short literary career.
Harlan Ellison (The best and most fearless man I have ever met.)
Fritz Leiber (An old friend and correspondent, whom I still miss bitterly.)
Poul Anderson (We once got loaded together...a scandalous story. St. Louis never recovered.)
Robert Silverberg (My girlfriend and I once spent a whole day with him and his wife. One of the best people ever to sit at a typewriter.)
Cordwainer Bird
J.G. Ballard (As with Bird, I never met the gentlemen...my loss!)
Larry Niven
Isaac Asimov

Odd that so few of these made it into other people's lists.

[Ubik]

52. hmm, probably a generational thing?

it would be a pity if younger generations missed out on fafhrd and the grey mouser!

what about michael moorcock and elric?

roger zelazny, harry harrison, l. sprague decamp, gordon r dickinson, james tiptree, so many great writers.

[theKed]

46. I'll list a few

and go on a bit about one in specific.

Vonnegut
Philip K Dick
Asimov
Clarke
Ellison
Frank Herbert
William Gibson

That last is the one I'll talk more about, as many (obviously) simply forgot him in their posts. Mostly his latest set of three novels (Pattern Recognition, Spook Country, and Zero History) - which, more than anything, are about the interplay of different kinds of information, and the blurred distinction between corporate, government, and social power. Really good read.

And if you can grab a copy of Burning Chrome, his old short story collection, there is some gold in there, too. The Gernsback Continuum, Red Star Winter Orbit, and The Hinterlands are favorites.

[McCamy Taylor]

47. Samuel K. Delaney (sci-fi), Tim Powers (fantasy).

[Madam Mossfern]

55. Love Delaney

and Zelazny. This is a good thread, because after many years I'm picking up Science Fiction again. I'm not much of a fantasy fan though.

[wet.hen88]

50. I'll never remember all, but

Here's a start:
LeQuin
Kim Stanley Robinson
David Briin
CJ Cherryh
Bradbury
Asimov
Philip Dick
Alan Dean Foster
Greg Bear

[FSogol]

51. I'm shocked that this old thread has 50 replies and no one mentioned Roger Zelazny!

For me:

1. Roger Zelazny
2. Larry Niven
3. Jack Vance

And in no particular order:

Jack Chalker
Douglas Adams
Terry Prachett
Harry Harrison
Poul Anderson
Michael Moorcock (his later stuff is too preachy for me)
Philip K. Dick
Philip Jose Farmer
Frederick Pohl
L. Sprague de Camp & Fletcher Pratt

[RebelOne]

53. Ray Bradbury, Stephen King, Dean Koontz and Edgar Allen Poe. n/t

[lebaronangie]

54. Gene Wolfe!!

How could anybody NOT include Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun, which is the definitive far-future trilogy (4 books)? Also, R.A. MacAvoy, who is an absolutely brilliant story-teller (sometimes sci-fi, sometimes fantasy), (Trio for Lute, The Grey Horse, The 3rd Eagle), Shirley Tepper (Grass, Beauty), Zelazny (Eye of Cat), and Douglas Adams!!!

[SoLeftIAmRight]

56. Kim Stanley Robinson

Bear - Bova

[eppur_se_muova]

59. Not a single mention of Alistair Reynolds ??!? Oh, the shame of it !

[Midnight Writer]

60. Great lists here. Have to add Theodore Sturgeon. Lots of talent in this field.

[warmfeet]

61. Too many to recall.

Ursula K. Le Guin
Margaret Atwood
Arthur C. Clarke
Isaac Asimov
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Ray Bradbury
Frank Herbert
Orson Scott Card
Carl Sagan

Many, many others.